Without An End In Sight

One of the projects that kept me busy the past few weeks was my involvement on a committee that generated a mailer intended to reach 6,500 people. It was our first try at such a venture, and it was an awakening to the process and the effort required to reach the goal. There were different theories of efficiency, estimations on how many letters were left, and if the letters would arrive in time to allow guests to attend an educational forum. My concern was efficiency. I wanted to know the best way to fold, insert, stuff, seal, and apply labels with the least amount of handling. It made no sense to have to touch the same piece of paper four different times, in my calculating brain that would mean over 25,000 different times the material shifted through the different staging areas! I brought paper home to fold, I watched movies I had never seen before, I found uses for household objects to help expedite the task (an old 3.5 disk is great for making a crisp fold), but most of the time I kept concentrating on the number. I was grasping at understanding the enormity of 6,500. I could single-fold 1000 in about 2 hours, but it was merely a blimp in the process. But then I began to wonder if that number is so vast, so expansive, what is this promise of eternal life? “Forever AND ever?” My brain hurts….

My prayer for the congregation?

Eternal God, Very God, we praise you. You know the grains of sand, you name the stars, and you claim the hairs on our head. We use science to try to explain your mysteries, we use math to try and explain your majesty, we use poetry to try and explain your love, and we use art to try and explain your beauty. Still, we are stymied in our inability to capture your essence. You do not ask us to explain your stateliness, but ask instead that we share the tidings of grace with our neighbor. Let us worry less about theory and more about caring. How long must we continue? How long can we discount? How long must we pray? When does one life end and another begin? Let us relax our quotas and statistics and simply be in your eternal presence, forever and ever. Amen.

The Lord rules.
He puts on majesty as if it were clothes.
The Lord puts on majesty and strength.
The world is firmly set in place.
It can't be moved.
2 Lord, you began to rule a long time ago.
You have always existed.
3 Lord, the seas have lifted up their voice.
They have lifted up their pounding waves.
4 But Lord, you are more powerful than the roar of the ocean.
You are stronger than the waves of the sea.
Lord, you are powerful in heaven.
5 Your laws do not change.
Lord, your temple will be holy for all time to come.
Psalm 93 (New International Reader's Version)

…it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up—and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life. This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.
John 3: 15-16 (The Message)

East. The edge of the world.
West. Those who came before me.
- Laurie Anderson